London: Poland’s Lukasz Kubot and Brazil’s Marcelo Melo won the Wimbledon men’s doubles title Saturday after beating Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic 5-7, 7-5, 7-6(7-2), 3-6, 13-11 in an epic test of endurance.
The match had to be finished under the Centre Court floodlights with play suspended at 11-11 in the evening gloom for the roof to be closed.
Marach and Pavic were caught cold and broken in their first service game after the restart, leaving the victorious pair to fall to the floor in an exhausted celebration after clinching victory in a match lasting four hours and 39 minutes.
Both pairs had come through titanic five-set battles in the semifinals, with Austrian Marach and Croatia’s Pavic taking more than four and a half hours to subdue Croatians Nikola Mektic and Franko Skugor 17-15 in the final set.
“I said to Lukasz before the match, ‘Man, I did everything on my life to be here in this court. I want to enjoy as much as I can. I reached the final once before (with Ivan Dodig, losing to the Bryan brothers in 2013), but now I want to win, and I can do it’,” Melo told Wimbledon website.
“After they closed the roof it was perfect for us, especially to break him love-40. The energy was so high, the atmosphere on court unbelievable. No words to describe,” he added.
